FAR: Lone Sails – Preview

In anticipation of it’s release, we take a closer look at indie game, Far: Lone Sails.

“An Atmospheric Vehicle Adventure” is how developer Okomotive describe their upcoming game, FAR: Lone Sails. The player controls the driver of a large vehicle, which must be maintained and upgraded, in order to explore an uninhabited dried out sea bed, searching for the remains of a once thriving civilization. Beyond the premise, the game’s story has been kept intentionally vague to encourage the player to explore the world out of curiosity.

In order to keep the vehicle moving, the player must move around inside it, operating stations and controlling various mechanisms to perform certain functions. The game is played from a side-scrolling perspective, with the vehicle’s interior exposed as a cross-section. The game also contains puzzles that are required to be solved in order to progress through the world. Interestingly, the game has been confirmed to have no enemies, violence or death despite it’s post-apocalyptic setting; so emphasis is on exploration, keeping your vehicle moving and puzzle solving.

The game’s development initially started in 2015 by lead developer, Don Schmocker, as a student project while studying game design at the Zurich University of the Arts. The development team has since expanded to include fellow students at the University. The game is being developed in Unity and the 3D models and 2D graphics were made in Blender and Photoshop respectively. Schmocker cites Journey and Little Big Planet as sources of inspirations for the game’s design as well as Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests and Stephen Biesty’s Incredible Cross-sections.

Since the game began development back in 2015, it has won an impressive amount of awards and accolades; most recently Best Student Project 2017 (Unity Awards), Best in Play 2017 (GDC Play) and Best Student Game 2017 (Independent Games Festival).

FAR: Lone Sails releases on PC on 17th May 2018 and will be released on PS4 and XBox One later in the year.